JPH09258931A - Printing controller - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a physical printer name with the same mechanism as a virtual printing device name to a user in a printing controller managing plural printing devices. SOLUTION: When a job reception means 1a receives a print job containing the designated printer name, a queue allocation means 1b judges whether the designated printer name is a virtual printer name or a physical printer name. When the printer name is the virtual printer name, virtual printer setting information which is previously relate with the printer name is added to the job and adds it to the trailing end of a queue corresponding to the virtual printer in a spool queue means 1d. When the printer name is the physical printer name, print job data is directly transmitted to a designated printing device. The user can securely execute an operation for a specified physical printing device by designating the printer name and the real time ability of the processing is improved.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a print control device, and more particularly to a print control device that receives a print request from a plurality of terminal devices and prints out from any one of the plurality of print devices.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there is a printing system including a plurality of terminal devices, a plurality of printing devices, and a print control device (print server). In such a printing system, when a user designates a printer name and print data from a terminal device and transmits it to a print server, a print output can be obtained from one of the printing devices managed by the print server. The print server has a printer spool function so that such a print command can be simultaneously received from a plurality of terminal devices. The printer spool function temporarily stores output data from a plurality of terminal devices and sequentially outputs the stored output data to the printing device.

Since the printer spool function processes the output data in order, it causes inconvenience when real-time output is required. For example, in the case of printing on a single-cut sheet as in the device described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 62-226220, the printing does not use the paper set in the paper tray, but the single-cut sheet set separately. However, in this case, since the data is not output to the printer in real time after the print command is issued, there is an inconvenience that the timing for setting the single-cut sheet to the printer is unknown. Therefore, the apparatus described in this publication is provided with a function of preferentially outputting designated data, and by this function, it is possible to set the timing for setting the cut sheet in the front inserter device of the printer. I am trying.

[0004]

By the way, in a print server that manages a plurality of printing apparatuses, in order to allow the software on the server to absorb the difference in the capabilities of the printing apparatuses, a virtual server having a unified ability is used. Assuming a printing device, the user of the terminal device is provided with the capabilities of the virtual printing device rather than the capabilities of the physical printing device.

However, even when the virtual printing device is provided to the user of the terminal device, font downloading, user default environment setting, use of the manual feed function of the physical printing device, etc.
There is still work to be done directly to the physical printing device. Therefore, there is a problem in that the user cannot perform the processing that should be performed on the specific physical printing apparatus even if only the virtual printing apparatus is provided as the target for the printing processing.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a print control apparatus capable of providing a user with a physical printer name by the same mechanism as a virtual printing apparatus name. To do.

[0007]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the principle of a print control apparatus according to the present invention. Print control device 1 according to the present invention
As an example, the plurality of printing devices 2a, 2b, ... 2m connected to the print control device 1 and the network 3
A plurality of terminal devices 4a, 4b, which issue jobs via the
... and are connected. The print control device 1 includes a job receiving unit 1a that receives jobs issued from the terminal devices 4a, 4b, ..., A queue allocating unit 1b that allocates a queue based on a printer name designated by a user, and Printer information storage unit 1c that holds information about a physical printer name associated with a printing device and information about a virtual printer name associated with a plurality of printing devices.
And a spool queue unit 1d having a queue provided in a one-to-one correspondence with the virtual printer.

According to the print control apparatus 1 having the above configuration, when a user of any of the terminal devices 4a, 4b, ... Issuing a print job including a designated printer name to the print control apparatus 1, The job accepting unit 1a accepts the job and sends the printer name specified by the user together with the print job data to the queue assigning unit 1b. The queue allocating means 1b refers to the printer information stored in the printer information storing means 1c and determines whether the received printer name is a virtual printer name or a physical printer name. If the printer name is the virtual printer name, the virtual printer setting information previously associated with the printer name is added to the job, and the job is stored in the queue corresponding to the virtual printer in the spool queue unit 1d. Add to the end. If the printer name is the physical printer name, the print job data is sent directly to the designated printing device.

With this configuration, the user can specify the physical printer name and issue the job to reliably perform the operation for the specific physical printing apparatus without using the queue, and the real time processing is improved. Moreover, from the user's point of view, since the print output is designated only by the designated printer name, the operation is easy.

[0010]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described as an example in which it is applied to a print server.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of the print server. In this figure, the print server includes a plurality of job receiving units 11 connected to the network 10.
.., a job control unit 12, and a plurality of job processing units 13a, 13b, .. The job control unit 12 includes a plurality of job output units that actually perform print processing. 14a, 14b, ... Are connected. The job output units 14a, 14b, ... Are constituted by a printing device or a copying device having a printing function.

The job receiving units 11a, 11b, ...
The job control unit 12 is configured to correspond to different job formats, and a job reception unit of a corresponding job format receives a job received via the network 10, and the job control unit 12 unifies the job formats defined by the print server. To pass on to. The job control unit 12 schedules the received jobs and manages the queue, and requests the job processing units 13a, 13b, ... For the processing required to execute the jobs. These processing functions include, for example, document format conversion processing, page description language rasterization processing, and notifiers. Then, the job control unit 12 sends the job ready for printing to one of the job processing units associated with the designated logical printer or the job processing unit corresponding to the designated physical printer.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of the job control unit. The job control unit 12 is provided so as to receive the output of the job reception unit 11, a queue allocation unit 121, a printer information registration unit 122, and is provided corresponding to the n virtual printers and manages the job processing order. Cue 1
23n and 23a, 123b, ..., 123n and the job developing units 124a, 124b, ..., 1 provided corresponding to the m printing devices 140a, 140b ,.
It is composed of 24m. Printer information registration unit 12
The names of n virtual printers and m physical printers are registered in 2, and virtual printer setting information is associated with each virtual printer name and defined. Further, in the illustrated example, the job developing units 124a and 124b are provided with, for example, PostScript (US Adobe System) for performing job processing.
An interpreter 130 for interpreting a language is connected.

The queue assigning unit 121 includes a job receiving unit 11
Receives a set of "printer name" and "print job data". The queue allocation unit 121 refers to the printer information registration unit 122 to check the received printer name, and according to the result, develops a job corresponding to a queue corresponding to a designated virtual printer or a job corresponding to a designated printing device. The process of sending to the department is performed. This queue allocation unit 121
The detailed processing flow of is shown below.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing a job processing procedure in the queue allocation unit. Queue allocation unit 121
Then, it is determined whether or not the physical printer name is designated in the printer name received from the job receiving unit 11 (step S1). If the designated printer name is the virtual printer name, the virtual printer setting information defined in the printer information registration unit 122 in advance in association with the virtual printer name is added to the job (step S
2) Then, the job to which the virtual printer setting information is added is added to the end of the queue corresponding to the virtual printer (step S3). If the physical printer name is specified for the specified printer name, the job expansion unit corresponding to the specified printing device determines whether the job can be accepted (step S4), and the previous job is being executed. If it is not possible to accept the job, it waits until it can be accepted, and if it is acceptable, it sends the job directly to the job development unit without going through the queue.

Next, returning to FIG. 3, the queue allocation unit 121
When it is determined that the designated printer name is the virtual printer name in step 1, the queue allocation unit 121 determines that the queue 1
Of 123a, 123b, ..., 123n, the job data to which the virtual printer setting information is added is sent to the queue corresponding to the designated virtual printer. The queue that received the job data adds the job to the end and holds it. In the virtual printer setting information added to each job, the identifier of the job expansion unit to which this job should be sent is 1.
One or more are set, and the queue reads this information from the setting information of the first job and waits for an event indicating that the job can be accepted from the corresponding job expansion unit. When there are a plurality of corresponding job developing units, the job is sent to the job developing unit that first became able to accept the job. When the transmission of one job is completed, the same processing is performed for the next job. Here, the processing procedure of the first job in the queue will be described.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the processing procedure of the first job in the queue. Queues 123a, 123b, ... In which at least one job is stored
., 123n, first, the information of the identifier of the job development unit to which the job should be sent is read from the stored virtual printer setting information of the first job (step S1)
1). Next, it is determined whether or not there is a job developing unit capable of receiving a job from the job developing units registered in the virtual printer setting information (step S12). If there is no job expansion unit that can accept a job, it waits until any job expansion unit can accept a job. If there is a job expanding unit that can accept the job, the job is sent to the job expanding unit (step S13),
This completes the processing of the first job.

Returning to FIG. 3, the job developing unit 124
a, 124b, ..., 124m are printers 140a,
140b, ..., 140m provided in a one-to-one correspondence with each other, and after performing necessary processing on the job sent from the queue, the corresponding printing device 140a,
The job is transmitted to 140b, ..., 140m. The job developing units 124a, 124b, ..., 124m can handle one job at a time, and cannot accept a new job while the job is already being processed. Further, the job developing units 124a, 124b, ...
Reference numeral 124m denotes a job held by the printing apparatus 140a,
When there are no jobs being processed by being sent to 140b, ..., 140m, an event indicating that a job can be accepted is generated. Depending on the job development section,
Sometimes necessary job processing such as format conversion and page description language rasterization is requested to the outside, and in the illustrated example, the first and second job development units 124a, 1a
24b requests the interpreter 130 that interprets the PostScript language to perform rasterization processing.

Next, the operation of the job control unit 12 in the print server will be described using more specific data. First, as the printing device, the first and second printing devices 140a and 140b have a function of receiving and printing the rasterized bitmap data, and the mth printing device 140m is PCL data (PCL is US One-sided / interpreting Hewlett-Packard page description language
It shall have a double-sided printing function. Corresponding to this function, the virtual printer name registered in the printer information registration unit 122 and the corresponding virtual printer setting information are as follows. That is, (1) virtual printer name # 1: = PS_2UP job development unit: = {job development unit # 1, job development unit #
2} Printer language: = PostScript 2-UP printing: = TRUE Double-sided printing: = FALSE (2) Virtual printer name #n: = PCL_DUPLEX Job development unit: = {Job development unit #m} Printer language: = PCL2-UP Printing: = FALSE Double-sided printing: = TRUE The following physical printer names are also registered. (3) Physical printer name #l: = PCL_PHYSICA
L job development unit: = job development unit #m The user selects one of these three printer names and sends the job. When this job is accepted by the job accepting unit 11 and output to the queue allocating unit 121, the queue allocating unit 121 first identifies the designated printer name. Here, the printer name is "PS_2
In the case of “UP”, the corresponding queue (# 1) 123
If the printer name is “PCL_DUPLEX” in a, the job is added to the corresponding queue (#n) 123n. The printer name is "PCL_PHYSIC".
In the case of “AL”, the job is directly transmitted to the job developing unit (#m) 124m. At this time, the job development unit (#m) 1
If 24 m cannot be received due to processing or the like, it waits for job transmission.

The queue (# 1) 123a checks the receivable state of the job developing unit (# 1) 124a and the job developing unit (# 2) 124b related to the queue (# 1) 123a, and firstly accepts the job. Send the first job saved to the person who can.

The job developing unit (# 1) 124a and the job developing unit (# 2) 124b are connected to the interpreter 130 that interprets the PostScript language, and when receiving one job from the queue (# 1) 123a,
The interpreter 130 is requested to convert the job into bitmap data expanded by 2 up, and then the converted data is acquired and transmitted to the corresponding printing device 140a or 140b.

On the other hand, the job developing unit (#m) 124m is
When the job is received from the queue (#n) 123n, the header data indicating the double-sided printing is transmitted to the printing apparatus 140m, and then the print job data is continuously transmitted.

When downloading a font to the printing device 140m, for example, the user specifies the physical printer name "PCL_PHYSICAL". Also, when sending control data for resetting the user default environment, for example, changing the default paper size in the printing device 140m from "LETTER" to "A4", the physical printer name "PCL" is also sent.
_PHYSICAL "is designated.

[0024]

As described above, according to the present invention, the queue allocation means is provided, and when the user specifies the virtual printer name, the job is added to the end of the corresponding spool queue, and when the physical printer name is specified. Configured to send the job directly to the physical printer. Therefore, it is possible to reliably perform operations for a specific physical printing device, such as font download and user default environment setting, without going through the virtual queue, and when using the manual feed function of the physical printing device, If the printer name is specified, the real-time processing will be improved.

From the user's point of view, there is a difference in processing between the case of designating the print output to which the print control information is added and the case of designating the print output for a specific physical printing device.
The operation is easy because there is only the specified printer name.

Further, by providing a queue on the virtual printer side, one queue can be associated with a plurality of physical printing devices.
Even when one printing device is unavailable, the printing result can be obtained from another printing device.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a principle configuration diagram of a print control apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a print server.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a job control unit.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a job processing procedure in a queue allocation unit.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of a first job in a queue.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 print control device 1a job reception means 1b queue allocation means 1c printer information storage means 1d spool queue means 2a, 2b, ... 2m printing device 3 networks 4a, 4b, ... terminal device 10 networks 11a, 11b, -Job accepting unit 12 Job control unit 13a, 13b, ... Job processing unit 14a, 14b, ... Job output unit

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A print control device that receives a print request from a plurality of terminal devices and prints out from any one of a plurality of print devices, and a job acceptance unit that accepts a job requested by a user, and print control for each. A printer information storage unit that holds information about a virtual printer name that is associated in advance by information and a physical printer name that is associated with each printing device; and a printer information storage unit that is provided corresponding to each of the virtual printers. Spool queue means having a queue for managing the processing order of holding each job and transmitting it to the corresponding printing device, and the printer name instructed by the user are judged, and in the case of a virtual printer name, the spool Assign the job to the corresponding queue of the queue means, and if the physical printer name, print corresponding Print control apparatus, characterized in that it and a queue allocation means for outputting a job location. 2. The print control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the printer information storage means defines virtual printer setting information in association with the virtual printer name. 3. The spool allocating means adds the virtual printer setting information defined in association with the virtual printer name to the job when the printer name designated by the user is a virtual printer name, and adds the job to the spool queue means. 3. The print control apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the print control apparatus is configured to be added to the end of the corresponding queue of.